This research is aimed to produce a protoretina which possesses the most basic structural as well as functional characteristics of vertebrate retinas. The retina of channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, is used as a prototype, as the retina, 1) lacks complex chromatic processing, 2) produces the initial electrical response which has constant gain lowpass filter characteristics, 3) shows very thin synaptic layers, and 4) has horizontal cells. We have completed the initial task of structural identification of neurons at the light microscopic level, and functional identification of neurons in the temporal domain. We are now extending the dual identification procedure to the neurons' synaptic organization by use of intracellular markers, and to their spatio-temporal receptive field organization. A basic modeling of the retina is expected to proceed soon.